Hidden Palace
by Nayru Elric
Summary: Escaping from the battle and leaving all the others behind was Mikaela's plan, but now that he finally has Yuichiro all to himself, why is it that something still feels incomplete? MikaYuu.


**Summary:** Escaping from the battle and leaving all the others behind was Mikaela's plan, but now that he finally has Yuichiro all to himself, why is it that something still feels incomplete?

* * *

 **Hidden Palace**

* * *

Gloved fingers squeezed tightly around Yuichiro, unconscious in his arms. Running far past the desolated highways that once belonged to the empire of Japan, Mikaela traveled away from the din of the battle, clinging to Yuichiro as if he was his lifeline.

Mika's footsteps slowed when he came to a forest splashed in bright autumn colors. Reluctantly, he followed the faint path winding around the trees, to a mansion abandoned after the fall of humanity. His vampiric crystal-blue gaze mulled over the water stained sides, the shattered windows. Upon the overgrown gardens, what once must have been a magnificent entryway, and on the doors, cracked and crooked from the tree roots sprouting through them. Leaves swirled in clumps around Mikaela's feet, but he trod through them without so much as a click of his boots upon the sunken cobblestoned earth.

Reaching the doorway, Mika brushed away the wooden shards of the door, all the while his arms protectively shielding the lifeless body in his arms, dressed in his white cloak. There was no hesitation as Mika continued up the main staircase of the mansion, down the main hall. Each room passed in a whisper of silvery curtains, showing transparent in the light of late afternoon. Leaves blew over the dusty hardwood floors. Now, though delicate his steps were, each one echoed throughout the mansion, knocking down the empty halls. At the end of the main hall, the vampire placed a hand on the door, pushed it open. Inside was a bathroom, a wardrobe, a four-poster king-sized bed, a chest of drawers, and an open window. The mansion's master bedroom.

As Mika raised the unconscious Yuichiro carefully onto frayed bedsheets, Yuu's arms flopped helplessly to his sides – his head hung sideways, mouth slightly agape. Mika couldn't help staring, seeing him that way. As if frozen in time. Yuichiro seemed a divine pallor with Mika's white cloak draped around his shoulders.

Yet again, Yuu had pushed himself too far for the sake of his new family, and there was nothing Mikaela could do to help him. Finally, Mika had Yuu alone and in his arms, but Yuichiro's wellbeing continued to evade him, as if their lives were only a part of some sadistic puppet show cooked up by the Creator. They were always so close, and yet never close enough...

 _It wasn't them,_ Mikaela reminds himself, his eyes transfixed upon the expressionless face of his precious, oldest, and only friend. _It wasn't the fault of Yuu's new family._ _It's both the humans and the vampires, pursuing a war that will only bring more suffering..._ Mikaela held no allegiance to either side. It was because of them that Yuu was like this, that Yuu had been driven to choose this path... the path of a Seraph with demon in him.

 _Yuu..._

Having found a new family, Yuichiro protected them with every fiber of his being. He still believed the vampires should be exterminated – every last one – so the world could go back to the way it used to be.

"If only it was that simple," said Mika. His words rang through the dusty mansion. It startled him back to reality, of the battle they had left behind. To how lifeless and ethereal Yuichiro looked, enwrapped in white and in his arms. Though Mikaela's voice had been gruff and low when he spoke, suddenly he called out in despair. "Yuu...! Yuu! Please, you have to wake up!" he cried, his grip on Yuu shaking him slowly from side to side. "You can't leave me alone like this...! Not again...! Yuu...! Please...!"

Mikaela wasn't sure how long he stayed that way, but eventually, hearing his own desperation, he released Yuu onto the bed, gradually, as if he was letting Yuu go in a pool of water where he would sink to the bottom and never return. To take his mind off his fears, Mikaela left Yuu's bedside to survey the area outside the window, one hand on the hilt of his sword, ears trained to any sounds behind him. Nothing moved aside from the leaves bristling across what was left of the path leading to the mansion and the rustling trees...

Hours passed and the orange sky gave way to a purple, fluorescent twilight. The full moon rose; a large, shining disk in the sky. Mikaela turned back toward the bed; Yuu hadn't moved. With Mikaela's cloak splayed out around him, the white light of the moon combined with the curtains around the four-poster bed looked ghostly across his friend. The sight stabbed fear into Mikaela's heart once more. Yuu was breathing – Mika could see his chest rising and falling – but he was still pale, still unconscious... his presence still vacant from Mika's life.

Mikaela stepped away from the window, gazing at his old friend with unfeeling eyes – clouded by years spent locked away in a city alone. He wished Yuu would awake. Any sign of movement would be better than the silence, better than this _waiting_ , unable to do _anything_...

As Mikaela watched Yuu under the influence of the moon's heavenly masque, he noticed that the collar of Yuu's military uniform fitted a little too closely around his chest and throat. Bending forward, Mika took Yuu into his arms once again, unbuttoning the front of Yuu's military uniform. He pulled off the black fabric around Yuu's arms and shoulders.

Mikaela gasped, trembled, fixated upon the pale and exposed flesh of his best friend, hopelessly losing his mind in thirst. _Not now!_ his conscience shrieked, mouth watering, craving human blood – Yuu's blood.

 _No, not now! I can't...! Don't! STOP!_

Mikaela felt his rational mind disappearing, until only one feeble corner of his consciousness wasn't devoured by his thirst for blood. He bowed closer to the main artery pulsing near Yuu's collarbone, until his lips grazed the back of Yuichiro's shoulder. His jaws spread in preparation to dig into Yuu's flesh.

 _If I don't stop now, I'll never be able to forgive myself!_ In a last effort, Mika's conscience called out, _YUU WILL NEVER FORGIVE ME!_

Mikaela's fangs lightly punctured the thin layer of tissue on the top of Yuu's left shoulder. Instead, Mika clenched down hard on his own bottom lip. Dark, crimson blood gushed from his mouth and onto the white bedsheets as Mika trembled, fighting his own desire. The pain allowed him to lay Yuichiro back on the bed, quickly rush to the wardrobe on the other side, retrieve a black nightshirt from one of the drawers, and lift Yuu again as he slipped his arms inside the shirt, pulled it over his shoulders. Mikaela bit himself harder whenever he felt his senses lapsing, drugging his vampire instincts with pain. This proved fallible when he faced Yuu's bare chest and throat, so Mikaela shed his gloves from his hands and rolled up his sleeves, periodically biting down on his skin whenever he felt himself becoming lost in his lust for blood.

By the time Yuu's shoulders were concealed by the dress shirt, Mika's thirst was too dulled by the pain in his arms, in his hands, and in his jaw. Lowered back onto the bed, Mikaela leaned over Yuichiro as he did up the buttons on the nightshirt, gazing into Yuu's peaceful, unconscious face... It was rare to see Yuu look so relaxed. Mika soaked up Yuu's expression, etching the image into his mind for eternity. Who knew how long it would be before he saw Yuichiro again, once they were separated?

 _I could have destroyed whatever is left of our friendship just now, Yuu,_ Mikaela thought, his hands breaking slowly away from the buttons on Yuu's shirt. _Just like that, in an instant I could have become your enemy instead of your protector..._ His eyes flickered momentarily to Yuu's throat. Mika forced himself away from his friend, sitting on the end of the bed. Grief at being his friend's sole threat hit Mikaela hard, but the emotion did not consume him.

Mika discarded Yuichiro's boots from his feet and onto the floor, then tucked Yuu's legs underneath the blankets, all the way up to his chin. Dried blood coated Mika's chin, lips, and the front of his shirt as he watched Yuu. "Wake up..." he muttered aloud. Tears inlaid in his eyes. "Wake up... please, Yuu... wake up... wake up..."

Mikaela remembered then. A moment from their past for whenever one of them was asleep, the other awake. They made a pact to help the other fall asleep if one of them was unable to by himself. _It was almost always Yuu that awoke me,_ Mika thought. To his own surprise, a small grin overcame his bloodied lips. Him and Yuu used stay up after all the others, reading the books they stole from sealed off buildings in the vampire city, talking about what their lives were like before the apocalypse. Most nights Mika helped Yuu through flashbacks about his parents, about the day that his father tried to murder him... Mikaela would hold Yuu in his arms, weave his fingers in his hair, speak in soothing lullabies until Yuichiro's panic had gone and drowsiness overcame him... They used to stay that way until morning.

Mikaela found himself humming some of dissonant tones that he remembered, wishing the tune could work in reverse – wake Yuu up instead of put him to sleep. The tears in his eyes overflowed, dampening his cheeks. A sensation he was unaccustomed to as a vampire. "Please wake up," Mika repeated. The salty water helped wash away some of the blood, though he was hapless and alone in the world. "Yuu, please... Wake up..."

* * *

 **~Morning~**

* * *

Hot bars of sunlight shone through the curtains at the window. Mikaela blinked, sitting up on the bed, realizing that he'd somehow drifted to sleep. He stayed motionless, staring at the bluebirds that flitted by the window, chirping gaily to each other in the early morning. That was when Mika saw Yuichiro's vibrant green eyes half-open and watching him.

Mika's eyes widened, and he jumped a little, hands digging into the mattress. "Y-Yuu! Are you all right?! You've been out for over twelve hours!"

Fishing his hands out from underneath the blankets, Yuichiro rubbed his eyes. "...Where am I...?"

Mika felt his shoulders relax, hearing the calm, if fatigued, lull of Yuu's voice. "We're in an abandoned mansion," he answered courtly, albeit flatly. Mika paused before saying, "Good morning by the way, Yuu."

Yuu sat up on the bed, his hands resting on the top of the blankets as he probed his surroundings. There was still a lethargic air about him when he asked, "...Where's everyone else?"

"They... stayed in the battle to protect you," said Mika, unable to admit that he didn't know where they were or what they were doing at the precise moment. "They were all uninjured the last time time I saw them," he added to try to quell the worry that appeared in Yuu's face.

"We have to help them!" Yuu said, swinging his legs around the side of the bed. He balked at the pain in his chest, clutching the black nightshirt Mikaela dressed him in last night.

"Be careful, Yuu," Mika admonished, arms around Yuichiro's chest, barring him from standing. "You shouldn't push yourself too hard this soon."

"We have to go back!" Yuu countered, shooting Mika a glare for trying to stop him. "I can't just leave them to face the vampires on their own! Who knows what kind of –"

"Your squad entrusted your safety to me," Mikaela interrupted sharply, his grip tightening on Yuu's shoulders.

"I can't leave my friends behind!" Yuu shouted, shoving one of Mika's arms off of him.

"B-but –!"

"These are my family, Mika!" Yuichiro said angrily. "I won't let anyone stop me from –!"

"I CAN'T LOSE YOU AGAIN!" Mika blurted out.

Yuu was about to retort until he realized what Mika had said. Mika's gaze lifted to meet Yuu's eye. There was something in his blue, vampiric eyes Yuu had never seen before – a vacancy he never would have recognized from his childhood friend Mikaela Hyakuya.

In the most unmovable, determined tone he could muster, Mikaela murmured, "I can't lose you again..." His voice cracked halfway through, becoming a pathetic whisper, causing the mixed emotions of confusion, irritation, and shock in Yuu's face to slacken.

It was then Yuichiro noticed that the brown substance on Mikaela's lips and chin was not grime. It was blood. When he looked down, he saw more rustic, brown blood stains on Mikaela's arms and hands. "Mika... what...?"

Mikaela shook his sleeves so they covered his arms, wiped his chin and concealed his hands. "Yuu, you can't go out back there yet. You will only put yourself and your friends in more danger if you do. They told you about your Seraph awakening during your last battle, didn't they? If I hadn't stopped you last time..."

Yuichiro swallowed. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hadn't wanted to believe he had. Mika would not lie to him about something like that. Yuu knew it had to be true. "...I would have killed Shinoa," he finished. "I almost killed Shinoa, and I didn't even realize..."

Mika nodded slightly. "We have to stay here for now, Yuu. Otherwise everything the Japanese Imperial Demon Army has worked for will be for nothing."

"For nothing..." Yuu echoed, eyes falling to the wall on the far side of the bed.

Mikaela stood. "I'll go find you something to eat."

"Wait, I'll come with y –" Pain shot through Yuu's body again when he tried to stand.

"You need rest here," Mika said in a scolding voice.

"What about you, then?" Yuu asked. "Don't you need something to eat, or...?"

Though Mikaela felt the weight of four years without human blood crashing down on him all at once, he gave Yuichiro a slight smile as he ventured toward the door. "Don't worry, I have a supply of blood. See you soon."

As Mikaela strode out the door, Yuichiro heard something clink underneath him. When he looked down on the bed, the pins attached to Mikaela's white cloak gleamed in the morning sun.

* * *

 **~Afternoon~**

* * *

Mika searched the kitchen and found nothing edible except a few soggy vegetables, so he returned with two dead rabbits at noon. Yuichiro was nowhere to be found. Panicked, Mikaela dropped the hairy carcasses on the floor and dashed from room to room, through the entire mansion and about to plunge into the forest, until he heard someone emerging from the cellar in the back. Puffing out a sigh of relief, Mikaela berated, "What were you doing down there?! I told you to stay in bed!"

"I got bored 'cause you were taking so long," said Yuu, sticking his tongue out at him. Mikaela blanched at the remark, making Yuu wonder where the playful kid from his childhood had gone. "Did you find anything?" he asked quickly to change the subject.

"A few rabbits," Mikaela said, his tone most displeased. "I dropped them in the master bedroom when I saw you weren't there."

"Let's see if we can cook them in the kitchen," said Yuu, once again trying to direct Mika's attention away from the fact he had scared Mika shitless. Yuu led in the way to the kitchen in a brisk pace, Mikaela following him unsurely. Brass appliances of all kinds in copper, silver, and gold awaited. "I wonder if any of this stuff still works..." Yuu tapped one of the knobs on the burner. It sparked and spat uncertainly, but nothing happened.

"I'll go get the rabbits from upstairs," said Mika.

Yuu reached after Mika with one hand as he headed out the door. He wasn't sure why. Listening to Mika's boots clomp quietly up the stairs and down the hall, it was the way which Mikaela left...

A pit formed in Yuu's stomach when it came to mind. _We can't share this meal. This is going to be food just for me, now that he's... now that Mika is..._ A part of him still couldn't face the tragedy that had befallen his best friend due to his own expense.

When Mika returned with a dead rabbit body in each hand, Yuu wasted no time. "Mika, do you have anything to eat?"

"I already told you that I brought some provisions with me –"

"Show me."

Disgruntled, Mika set the dead rabbits on the stove, exhibiting the pouch hooked to his belt with vials full of Krul's blood. Yuu could see half of them still full of crimson blood, but as Mika flipped the front of the pouch closed, Yuu was sure there was something Mika wasn't telling him. That didn't explain the bite marks all over his arms...

"In any case, we should get the stove working," Mika said abruptly.

"Yeah," Yuu agreed, still thinking about what it was Mika could be hiding. "I don't know what's wrong with it. Unless... the gas was cut off somehow? C'mon, let's go check."

As Yuu moved toward the door to the basement, Mika caught his arm. "Yuu, wait. I'll go check, you stay here."

"Jeez, Mika, I'm not _that_ helpless. You don't need to baby me. I'm not a little kid anymore." He took his arm from Mika's grasp, but Mika persisted.

"Yuu, I don't want you hurting yourself. We need to use this time to make you better, not –"

"It's just one flight of stairs."

"We don't know what could be down there," said Mika harshly.

Yuichiro wanted to tell Mika that he was overreacting, but he thought of a better idea. "Fine, then tell me why you're acting so weird," said Yuu, crossing his arms.

Perplexity overcame Mikaela's austere features; he withdrew from Yuu. "Huh?"

"I understand that you're worried about me... I even saw that you wrapped your cloak around me last night," Yuu muttered embarrassedly, turning sideways to try to hide the blushes that arose on each of his cheeks. "Even so. You won't tell me what those teeth marks on your arms are, and I feel like there's something you aren't telling me the truth about..."

Mika was taken aback by Yuu's shrewd observations. "Th-that's ridiculous, Yuu. I'm here on a mission to protect you, not the other way around, so you don't need to worry about –"

"Yet there's something you aren't telling me," Yuu inputted.

Mikaela swallowed. He hated how perceptive and persistent Yuichiro could be sometimes. "It's none of your concern."

"It is my concern!" Yuu remarked, throwing his hands into the air. "If you're hurting yourself, then as your family I have a right to know why."

"Family..." Mika was shocked to hear Yuichiro still using that word after all the time that had passed between them.

"Yeah, family," said Yuu. "Which means you have to tell me everything that's going on with you twenty-four hours of the day, seven days of the week, three-hundred and sixty-five days of the year. Whether you want to tell me or not."

"...I can't, Yuu," said Mika, doing his best to brush aside Yuu's persistence.

"Yes you can."

"I CAN'T!" Mika shouted, shooting Yuu a glare that implored him not to press the matter further.

Yuichiro had never imagined Mikaela using such a harsh tone, nor could he comprehend the look of hostile vulnerability in his friend's face. "Mika, if it's bothering you that much, then I want you to tell me."

Mikaela wondered if he could, if he should. _No, Yuu would only offer his own blood to help me, and being weak, I would comply... I can't let that happen._ Four years later, Ferid's teeth digging deep into his skin night after night was still fresh in Mikaela's mind. The pain, the weakness... He couldn't allow Yuichiro to experience the same thing. Not for anyone in the world. "If I tell you, you'll only want to help, which is something I can't let you do," Mika said carefully, though truthfully.

"Why is it so bad that I want to help?" Yuu asked. He was starting to get really scared for Mikaela, for whatever it was that Mika wasn't telling him. Mika didn't answer Yuu's question, but seeing the disheveled, _dehydrated_ scuff in Mika's movements, remembering the blood on his lips, all over his arms... Yuu put two and two together. At least for the most part. His logic didn't explain the vials full of blood in the pouch at Mika's belt...

"Anyway," said Mika, "I'll go see if the gas is still –"

"Mika, do you need blood?"

 _Shit._ "No, I have enough blood to last me five more days. I'll be fine –"

"You're lying to me!" Yuichiro yelled. "I don't want you to lie to me anymore! When you came back weak and emotional that night after that vampire noble bastard...! You really scared me into thinking you were...! That you would...!" Yuu tried to scrub away the tears rolling down his cheeks. There were simply too many for him to keep up with them all. "I thought you were dead...! For four years, I thought I left you to die..." He lifted his face toward Mikaela, unable to discern the shocked expression on his face through the thickness of his tears. Yuu started again, in a shaky voice, "But then... I saw you were alive, and I was filled with hope that we could... have something like when we were kids. Be a family again, even if it's without everyone else. If you don't trust me enough to tell me why you're hurting yourself, then maybe you _do_ resent me for leaving you behind... I mean, it is my fault you were turned into a vampire... it's my fault that you have to drink blood in the first place, why you're stuck here with me instead of helping yourself. Maybe... it would be better if... I just..."

Mikaela's eyes widened fearfully at Yuichiro's accusations. "No, that isn't your fault, Yuu! Me being a vampire has nothing to do with this!" _Yuu can't blame himself for what happened to me!_

"Then why won't you tell me what's wrong?!" _Jeez, it used to be Mika who was the sniveling idiot whenever something happened. Now it's me who's crying. He's perfectly calm..._

Mika wasn't perfectly calm. The primary emotion he felt now was self-loathing for being unable to keep his thirst for blood forever out of Yuichiro's list of concerns. "Yuu –"

"If it's because you think by telling me, you'll hurt me, then I'll have you know that _not_ telling me hurts more than anything you could ever do to me," Yuu sniffed.

Mika felt himself lost in another dimension as Yuu moved closer to him, reaching out for him. Mika made no move to receive him, but remained stationary as Yuu's hands found Mika's shoulders, sliding up to his face. Yuichiro tilted his head forward until raven hair mingled with blond, staring Mika right in the face. "Don't you _dare_ take the burden by yourself when I'm right here beside you, you idiot," Yuu chided with a hint of humor in his voice.

Without his meaning to, Mika's vision slated over with a transparent film of water. Tears. Mikaela's stoic posture crumbled and fell. His hands locked around Yuichiro's wrists, then moved to clasp his cheeks. A small grin played across Yuu's lips as they cried together. _This is the way Mika should be, the caring one while I'm the hot-headed idiot, not the other way around..._

Caught in each other's breathy sobs, Yuu was gratified, having the old Mika so close to him once again. He barely questioned it when their lips brushed, and Mika's eyes flickered open, wildly. He didn't flinch at the touch, but it was as if he was asking for permission, unable to understand. Yuichiro's eyelids drooped closed, halfway, and though he didn't quite understand either, he leaned closer until the less-than-an-inch gap between them was no more. Mikaela jolted slightly, having Yuichiro's tongue suddenly between his teeth, his lips fumbling around his mouth, their noses knocking into each other. Before Mika could reciprocate the kiss, Yuichiro pulled away.

"I, u-uh –" Yuu could barely make sound, let alone provide an explanation as his hands fell back to Mika's shoulders, then off of him altogether. Mika's gloved hands caught onto Yuu's before they fell back to his sides.

"Yuu..."

There it was again. A look in Mika's eyes that Yuichiro didn't understand, but this time he recognized; it was the same dreamy look Mika had given him late at night when Mikaela wouldn't answer what he was doing. "Wait, Mika." Yuichiro stepped back from Mika, throwing his hands aside. "Tell me what's bothering you."

The blush in Yuu's face lingered, and Mika wanted so badly to... But he wouldn't. "Yuu, I can't –"

"Just say it!" Yuu demanded. "I told you there's no way you can hurt me more than this!"

After an instant of reluctance, Mika gave in. "I've never drunk a human's blood before!" _I'm going to regret this._

Yuichiro swayed, uncomprehending. "...Wh... what...? How...?"

"I've lived off the blood of the vampire queen's for four years," Mika explained. "In that time, I've been able to stop myself from drinking human blood, but now, after all this time... even Krul's blood doesn't seem to be working," he said. Mikaela looked at the floor.

"Which means... you'll turn into a demon... right?" Yuu asked cautiously.

Mikaela's hair covered his eyes. He nodded.

Hesitantly, Yuu stepped forward, spreading his arms. "Then –"

"I won't drink your blood, Yuu," Mika cut in.

Yuichiro stopped. "Wh... why not?"

"I can't."

"Yes you c –"

"This is why I didn't want to tell you!"

Yuu was silent for a moment. "Then... those marks... on your arms...?"

Mika gritted his teeth, his fangs resting over the spots on his bottom lip where he had bitten himself. Just the slight touch almost caused the cuts to reopen. "I... couldn't let myself turn into an enemy when I was supposed to be protecting you."

"Mika..." He outstretched his arms toward Mikaela. "It's fine, I can jus –"

"You can't!" Mika screamed, pushing Yuichiro away. "You can't do that. I... I can't let go of the last piece of humanity I have left, not when I've finally found you again..."

Yuu couldn't think of anything to do that would help his friend. His hands fell to his sides with crushing defeat. There was nothing he could say.

"I'll wait here," Yuu said after a time.

Puzzlement crossed over Mika's face. "What?"

"While you see if the gas still works," Yuichiro clarified, folding his arms over his chest. "You can go do it. I'll wait here."

Mika lingered for a moment before striding to the basement with haste in his steps, leaving Yuichiro to ask: _Did I honestly just kiss him?!_

Although Mika hadn't resisted, he hadn't exactly kissed Yuu back.

* * *

 **~Nighttime~**

* * *

Not only had Mikaela gotten the stove running, but relit the pilot light of the furnace to heat in the entire house. After Yuu's lunch and dinner, both meals consisting of rabbit meat, Mikaela found some wood in the forest. Yuichiro sat at the foot of the sofa near the fire in the mansion's den, thick blankets cocooned around him. Mikaela sat with his back against the window, watching the outside. The night was cold, but in the comfy confines of the mansion, Yuichiro felt safe and warm. He was sifting through what could be going on in the battlefield that him and Mikaela had left over a day ago when Yuu was suddenly hit by a thought. "Mika, aren't you cold over there?"

Mika's cerulean eyes turned away from the window, onto him. "Not really."

"Why?"

Mika gave Yuu a look practically oozing with irony.

"What?"

"You really don't know much about vampires, do you, Yuu?" Mika asked. There was a mischievous singsong air to his voice, one like the old Mikaela that Yuichiro missed.

Wanting to keep the playful air up, Yuu said, "Hey, it's not like you knew much about vampires either, not until –" Yuichiro stopped himself before he completed the thought. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to..." _Ah, screw it. I'm bad at this._

"That's fine, Yuu. I know you didn't mean it that way," Mika said. He turned his head back out the window, to the moonlit trees that danced in the wintery winds. Having retrieved his cloak from the bed upstairs, Yuichiro could see it draped around Mika's shoulders right now. The purposed, hunkered position Mikaela took on now as he watched for movement outside the window made him seem more distant and far away than he actually was.

"So then, what is it that I don't know about vampires?" Yuichiro inquired. His voice was little more than a croak. He didn't know where he was going with this.

Mikaela looked back at him, not shocked, but imposing. His eyes reflected the flames of the fire in front of Yuu, knowing orbs of wisdom that unnerved Yuichiro in the face of Mikaela Hyakuya. "Well, for one, vampires have no need for body heat." He added, "Normal vampires, anyway."

"What about you?" Yuu asked. "Do you have to maintain your body heat since you're only half vampire?"

"Yeah, since I'm half human, I need to maintain some, but not as much as normal humans."

"What about right now? Are you warm enough?"

"Yeah... Why are you asking?"

Yuu felt his ears turn red. "U-uh, no reason, really," he said, stumbling over his words. A hand flew awkwardly to the back of his head.

Mika leaned forward until he was on his hands and knees, and crawled toward Yuu until he was forced to look him in the eye. "Yuu, why aren't you looking me in the face?" he questioned, completely serious. Yuichiro was imagining him saying it the same way he had when they were kids, which only made him more flustered.

"Wh-what? What d-d'you mean? Of course I'm –"

Mikaela caught the hand behind Yuu's head as he was about to stick it back in his cocoon of blankets. "This afternoon," Mika said.

 _Oh no._ Yuichiro didn't want to talk about the kiss just yet. In fact, he wanted to forget that it ever happened, but he knew that he couldn't avoid Mika forever. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," Yuu burst, tripping over his own words. "I wasn't –"

"Thank you."

"Eh?" Yuichiro reeled back toward Mikaela, seeing the subtle, yet sincerely grateful expression that had overcome his angelic features.

Mikaela's eyes shifted to meet Yuichiro's slowly. "Thank you for that, Yuu," he said again.

With Mika's face as close to him as he was now, Yuichiro had the urge to kiss him again. Before he could act on that urge, Mikaela sat back against the couch beside the cocooned Yuichiro.

Yuichiro tried to stay calm with Mikaela right beside him as he spoke, using a tone similar to what he used to on the nights they stayed up late reading books or discussing the world. "All this time, I thought you were dead. I was so happy just to see you again... knowing that you were alive, even if you were a vampire... Is that selfish?"

"It's not selfish at all," said Mikaela. He smiled quietly to himself. All the time he had spent worrying about Yuu still liking him if he was a vampire... had been pointless.

Childishly, Yuichiro wished Mika would wrap his cloak around him again. Knowing that after all this time Mika was still protecting him from the world, the same as the nights he used to have flashbacks about his parents, curled up in his arms until morning, was something that Yuichiro had missed... He wanted Mika to protect him that way again. Yuichiro turned his head toward Mika to find Mika's eyes already on him. Without saying a word, Mikaela leaned toward Yuu and, with a hand caressed under Yuu's chin, kissed him again.

Less abrupt than the first, Mika and Yuu trailed their lips gingerly around each other, some saliva passing between them. Their noses touched every few seconds as they shifted their faces for different angles. Yuichiro's knuckles gripped the blankets around his body until they were white, unable to fully comprehend the feeling in his chest for the precious family member he thought to be dead for so long... When Mika pulled away a little, the dazed look in Yuu's face distressed him. "Yuu..."

Yuichiro's arms came out from his cocoon of blankets, taking Mikaela's head and neck in his hands. "Careful," Mikaela murmured between Yuu's breathy kissing. Yuichiro understood when Mika retracted slightly, lips drawing over his fangs. If Yuu got cut, Mikaela could go into a frenzy that neither of them would be able to stop, and he would respect Mika's wish to stay part human for as long as possible.

Yuichiro felt the gaps in Mika's lips where he'd sunk in his own fangs. He treated the places extra tenderly, planting small licks and kisses on them. Mika's hands gripped Yuichiro's upper arms as Yuu's hands worked through his blond hair, pulling only slightly to direct Mika's mouth in his. Mika's tongue was invasive in Yuu's mouth more than Yuu, only because of the fear of Yuu cutting himself on Mika's fangs. Otherwise, Yuichiro was the more sloppy kisser, trailing over Mikaela's lips until saliva rolled down their chins, gasping and grunting as they fell into a hunky rhythm of messy smooches.

When Yuu's mouth worked down to Mikaela's throat, that was when Mika took his hands off of Yuichiro at once. He stumbled back.

"Mika...?"

Mikaela hated to be the one to kill the mood, but he couldn't take this any longer. Any farther, and he might... "You know we can't stay like this forever, don't you, Yuu?" Mikaela asked, wide-eyed and breathing rapidly.

"What?" Yuu asked, surprised at hearing Mikaela's somber tone. A few moments ago, Yuu had been cold, but now he was burning hot, pieces of his mind scattered everywhere. "What are you talking about?" he said, slurring a little, blinking stupidly in the light of the fire as he stared at Mikaela, trying to clear the euphoric fog in his head. "Why not?"

Mika gave him a meaningful look. He couldn't believe what he was saying after wanting this for so long, to run away with Yuu, without anyone else, and never look back, both of them only wrapped in each other. Yuichiro saw the flash of sadness and – was that _jealousy?_ in Mika's eyes. From that, Mika didn't even need to say it. "Your new family."

Three words, and their world of bliss dissolved into the quietness of an abandoned mansion in the middle of a forest.

"You can't stay with me," Mika said.

"Wh-why not?"

"I could go crazy on you at any time without drinking human blood, remember?" He sat up and turned toward the fire, the somber light in his eyes never fading.

"That's not true, Mika," Yuu tried to say. "I know that you would never..." But Yuichiro couldn't finish his sentence. He remembered the sight of the bite marks all over Mika's arms, over his hands, littered with the blood that seeped through his white sleeves.

Mika said, "The battle should be over by tomorrow. I'll take you back by then."

Yuichiro hated hearing Mika's say that their time together would, once again, come to an abrupt end, but more than anything... he hated that Mika was right. He would regret leaving his friends. That was something he couldn't do. And Yuu couldn't allow Mika to keep hurting himself for his own sake...

Knowing all this, Yuichiro felt no shame in asking, "Could you give me your cloak again?"

Dragging his blankets with him, Yuichiro sat right against Mikaela as his white cloak draped around his arms. Once Mika had hooked the cloak at his neck, Yuichiro wrapped an arm around Mika's shoulders, head against him. Mika, although surprised, brought an arm around Yuu's shoulders as well. He didn't want to get too close because the sound of Yuu's pulse might set him off, but they looked each other in the eyes as their heads leaned against each other, a bond between them that no one in the entire world could tear apart.

"I love you, Yuu," Mikaela whispered, the fire dancing in his eyes before he shut everything out.

With Mika falling asleep beside him, Yuichiro turned toward the fire, a pink blush gracing his cheeks. Calmly, he replied, "I love you too."

* * *

 **I started this as a sort of experiment (when I** _ **really**_ **should be writing my** _ **other**_ **MikaYuu fic) but jeez I got carried away. So very far away. This is based vaguely off of chapter 35 of the manga since I'm going insane waiting for the next one. Really, this story could fit in with any time Mika saves Yuu from a battle when he goes too far...**

 **Entirely unintentionally, this fic has mentions of events from** _ **Memento Mori**_ **in it, my long-term MikaYuu fic, so if you're confused then I encourage you to also check out that story~**

 **This is the first time I've ever made one of my OTPs kiss (multiple times, at that!), so do be sure to tell me if the way the emotions progressed was wrong or something. Thanks for the read, I hope you enjoyed!**


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